Mo / Sinha Engineering Systems Acquisition and Support

1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-0-85709-215-1
Verlag: Elsevier Science & Techn.
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 244 Seiten

Engineering systems such as an aircraft or frigate are highly complex and specifically designed to meet the customer's requirements. This important book provides the information necessary to acquire and support complex engineering systems expected to last for a long time. Chapters in the first half of the book examine the life cycles of these systems, their design, testing and certification, and the principles behind their acquisition. The second half of the book reviews topics including operations support and logistics, systems maintenance, reliability and upgrades, and performance and risk analysis, ending with a discussion of the need for continuous improvements in these systems. - Creates a new operational view of modern acquisition, design, services and support systems - Applies enterprise modelling and analysis techniques to develop a whole systems view - Takes the systems engineering approach to services system design and support

John P. T. Mo is currently Professor and Discipline Head of Manufacturing and Materials at RMIT University. Prior to RMIT, he was Senior Principal Research Scientist in CSIRO leading research teams working on risk analysis, electricity market simulation, wireless communication, fault detection and production scheduling and more. He obtained his PhD in Manufacturing Engineering from Loughborough University, UK, and is a Fellow of Engineers Australia.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mo, J P T

Sinha, A.

Leseproben

Preface

The availability of effective global communication facilities nowadays has changed the business goals and practices of many enterprises that are developers of complex engineering products such as an aircraft or a frigate. They need to remain competitive by developing innovative products and processes that are specific to individual customer’s requirements, completely packaged and made available globally to make best use of resources within defined constraints. The complexity of these engineering products also means the need for developing a different set of knowledge that includes the following:

• Systems design, development, validation, testing, installation and commissioning during acquisition phases;

• On-going operations support, mid-life upgrades, services and logistics, maintenance and repairs during operations phase;

In some cases, due to regulatory and institutional requirements, consideration is also required for decommissioning.

In the acquisition phase, user requirements are not normally clear. The design of systems can vary greatly between different vendors and concepts. In many cases, several consortia are involved, each bringing their own expertise and expectations. The challenge to the system acquisition team is to establish suitable baseline for comparing different proposals. In order to make a fair judgement to different designs, the acquisition needs to apply modelling methods and analysis tools to assist in the evaluation and interrogating processes.

The lengthy and complicated acquisition process is further complicated by the increasing expectation that the complex engineering system needs to be in service for years. From the owner’s point of view, asset capability should increase over time to meet changing demands. To achieve this goal, typical support and services after acquisition of the asset should include significant mid-life upgrade and whole of system integrated logistics support. The philosophy of whole of life engineering development and support is to integrate product-design information through to implementation, manufacture, services and decommissioning of the product. Substantial planning is required to enable flexible delivery of services and logistics support to the asset from anywhere in the world.

To address these issues, business systems across company boundaries are formed to operate across time and space with world-wide distributed functions of systems design, testing, validation, manufacturing, sales, customer support, engineering, quality assurance, project management, supply and process chain management, operations control and so on. New business models such as performance-based contracting has emerged in recent years as one of the favourable choices of contracting mechanisms for the public sector and asset-intensive industries such as defence, water, transport and chemicals. Under performance-based contracting, a third-party contractor takes responsibility and risks for the management of a specific part of the business. This compares to traditional maintenance-oriented arrangement where the asset’s capability will inevitably degrade due to age and technology changes.

However, no two systems acquisition and support projects are the same because each system needs to meet different user requirements. Due to the highly individualised nature of the acquisition and support of complex engineering systems, it is an extremely knowledge intensive, labour-rich business that requires the development of new systems in the form of design certification, digital manufacturing, integrated testing, customer-support centres, information infrastructure, human organisations, multi-disciplinary engineering teams, supply chains and distribution networks. Operations of these engineering units in a globally distributed environment present significant challenges to the engineering systems developers.

This book will address the skill set of professional engineers and operations managers required to acquire and support a complex engineering system that is expected to last for a long period of time and to meet increasing demand in capability. This book provides a core knowledge base that draws upon principles derived from a wide range of business and engineering disciplines including systems engineering, services engineering, operations support, integrated logistics, industrial engineering and many others.

The book is intended to be both a special text for relevant courses at university level as well as a general knowledge text book for professional engineers, systems managers, acquisition officers and operations managers to enhance their knowledge in acquisition and support of complex engineering systems. The book is also written with the aim that research students studying in systems engineering, support and services engineering, logistics and procurement will find it useful as an introductory text to start their research aspiration. The broad range of knowledge requirement in acquisition and support demands a broad coverage of both engineering and business perspectives of expensive complex engineering systems. Books in engineering services tend to focus on people management issues, which are not sufficient in diagnosing and managing problems operating engineering systems. This book will:

• Create a new understanding and operational view of modern acquisition, design, services and support systems. Contemporary books on asset management only focus on maintenance and reliability issues that are restricted in scope.

• Include enterprise modelling and analysis techniques that are essential for engineering professionals involved in the acquisition and support of complex engineering systems to develop a whole of systems view of the design and services requirements of such a system in its serviceable life.

• Take a systems-engineering approach that guides the reader through important systems-development processes of systems design, testing and verification for both complex engineering system and post-acquisition support system. This approach is different from many engineering management books that only focus on management of the engineering process rather than the process itself.

• Provide a detailed account of performance and risks-analysis methods that are critical to the acquisition of a complex engineering system and subsequently its satisfactory operation through the life of the system. Books in maintenance and reliability engineering do not cover these analyses at the acquisition phase.

The book uses case studies and work examples to illustrate the concepts and principles. It will be organised in the chapters that follow further.

1. Introduction

This chapter introduces the background and concepts of acquiring, operating, supporting and servicing complex engineering systems. In particular, the significance of system integration and whole of life systems design.

2. The life cycles of complex engineering systems

This chapter outlines stages in the life cycles of complex engineering systems and their significance in designing and management. Along with the description of the life cycles, relevant tools and methods for assisting management of the system are explained.

3. Systems acquisition principles

This chapter explores principles and processes of acquisition of systems. Complex engineering systems are by nature specially designed and often one-of-a-kind applications. Governance of the processes in systems acquisition is maintained though formal acquisition processes such as tenders and design participation.

4. Systems design

The systems-design process is standard and structured. This chapter explains systems modelling, sub-systems design, tooling and implementation.

5. Management of engineering-design changes

Engineering changes have the effect of increasing system costs. This chapter discusses the requirements for engineering design change, change impact analysis and project management issues.

6. Systems prototyping and testing

This chapter covers the testing and certification phases of the development of complex engineering systems. These include methodologies and processes in prototyping, digital manufacturing, physical and virtual testing, design verification and certification.

7. Operations support and logistics

This chapter covers the system design and operation of support systems using different theoretical tools including process mapping, operations research, logistics systems analysis and remote support.

8. Systems maintenance and reliability

Maintenance and reliability are concepts that are closely linked together. There are many types of maintenance, each with special characteristics. This chapter covers the statistical principles and their application to maintainability and reliability assessment.

9. Mid-life upgrades

The capability of complex engineering systems requires constant review and upgrade. This chapter covers analysis of systems’ upgradability, the issues of data authority and certification. Approaches such as the blackbox approach for mid-life upgrade projects are discussed.

10. Architecture for designing support systems

This chapter explores the architecture of support systems that provides the basis for new effective system design. The chapter presents enterprise modelling...